Pro Bono Webinar – answering your questions & next steps!

Thank you to everyone who attended our webinar with Pro Bono Australia and for submitting all of your great questions! I’ve selected a few of those that didn’t get answered during the webinar and provided some extended information to help you here! If you have any lingering questions, please don’t hesitate to post them in the comments or in our Stories For Impact Facebook group or sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date with our latest tools & resources.

The following questions are answered below:

1) How to produce with no budget or minimal budget
2) What are some compelling examples of story types
3) Dealing with tough issues, privacy, or ‘stuff that matters’

Question 1: How to produce with no budget or minimal budget

Question: Mimi L: How can NFPs with no budget produce compelling videos – any tips on boostrapping to create same impact as professionally done video?

Find volunteers, especially aspiring filmmakers
If you’re lucky enough to know some young digitally savvy people then you might be able to rope one of them in on the grounds of gaining experience while working on a good cause. However, the quality that results from this is often variable unless you find someone who is truly aspiring to be a great filmmaker and will see working with you as a portfolio piece on their way to more paying opportunities. The only way to succeed in film making is to work very very hard. So if you can find some one who is deeply passionate about storytelling and get them to also get passionate and knowledgeable in your cause, this is the recipe for getting a reasonably good video at an early stage career filmmaker. Ask around in our Stories For Impact Facebook group and you never know who you might find.

Do a great brief, find a pro to donate some time
Our advice is to follow our story canvas processes so that if you do manage to find a pro filmmaker who wouldn’t mind doing some socially important work, so they won’t have to spend so much time crafting your story as much as shooting and editing it.

To be honest, a large but important proportion of our production budgets are spent discovering and aligning story goals before we even pick up cameras. This way all the expensive shooting time is worth it.

Sonja G: What are good examples of Success or Personal journey stories?

ANSWER:
At Digital Storytellers we produce pieces in a series of categories — but do remember the creative possibilities are endless.

Explainer Animations – hand-drawn RSA-style animations to explainer products, concepts or ideas that are best shown in a story with entertainment and humour to help the story along. See our explainer piece for the G8 Impact Investment Taskforce

Event Vision Piece — multi-interview based pieces that are easier to produce because all the talent is one on room, ultimately driving narrative behind the events and conferences. See our Event Vision Piece for Progress 2015

The Impact Story — character driven vision pieces that specifically use character-driven narratives to communicate larger social impact. See our case study for The Difference Incubator on Team Wild.

The Personal Journey Story — Single-character pieces that show the importance of social issues through the lens of a single character, often can be quite powerful if the central character is strong. See our stories for Transplant Australia or Our Tibet Story.

We will be doing a blog series on story types covering each type in more depth, so stay tuned.

You can also subscribe to be notified of future workshops, where we will take you a on personally guided email course through the above story types we produce on a regular basis, and how you can consider making one yourself.

Question 3: Dealing with tough issues and privacy

Sonja G: When the subject matter is difficult, like family violence or depression, what is the best way to represent the ‘audience’ in the story?

ANSWER:
Hi Sonja, often we work with those who have sensitive issues that they don’t wish to share with the world, but it is often that silence which promotes permission for those issues to exist, and often results in a culture of complicity.

A great example of this is one of my personal heroes Rosie Batty, whose upsetting story of her ex-husband murdering her son has shocked Australia into finally launching several campaigns against the culture of domestic violence perpetrated by men. Immediately after losing her son, Rosie bravely faced the media and has been sharing her story ever since and undoubtedly provoked our society’s need to address the issue of domestic violence.

In each of the people whose lives we are trying to change, is a soul whose story is important. And it should be that person’s decision as to whether they are willing to share their story with the world and speak out against the very issues that created those negative conditions in the first place.

So I would encourage a safe space first, for those with the tough issues and difficult subject matter. For those who have come out the other side and feel comfortable knowing and communicating their story, a sensitive filmmaker would be able to portray their story in a way that honours them but also allows the audience of the organisation to take a role in supporting it.